When she was young, Poh Poh left her home and everything she knew to travel across the ocean to North America—what they knew as Gold Mountain. The one thing she brought was her sword, but she did not use it to fight. She used it to forge a new life for her family.
Author Julia Hune-Brown and illustrator Hayley Lowe ask each other a creative question in celebration of their new book, Poh Poh’s Sword, based on the remarkable history of Julia’s grandmother, Gar Yin Hune.
Deep in October County is a magical place called Spookytown, where the leaves are always bright, the air is always crisp and the pumpkins are always in their prime. Author Vikki VanSickle and illustrator Jannica Lounsbury reflect on the creation of Mother Boo: Poems from Spookytown, an autumn collection of verse that runs the gamut from silly to sweet to spine tingling!
This book is brilliant mix of absurdity and beauty. It’s a story about a talking pickle, and also a story about life and death. About purpose and community. About the things we can and can’t control in life. As soon as I’d read this briny wonder, I knew it would be the perfect book to kick of this new series!
A new series in which writers and illustrator reach across the great divide and ask each other one question about their experience of creating the book they’ve made together.
Celia Krampien grew up in a house in the woods in a small town near Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. She studied illustration at Sheridan College and currently lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, with her partner, a mischievous cat, and a nosy beagle. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Bellwoods Game and Remember Me, Daphne. Photo by Jamie Nadalin.
Qin Leng is the illustrator of many beautiful books for kids. Her most recent, A Friend is A Friend is a Friend, is a perfect summer time read, particularly for kids headed to camp and nervous about making friends. Fantastic Lou, her debut graphic novel, is also on my list of must-read books this summer. Photo by Lian Leng.
Debut author Emma White talks navigating rejection, being a pantser, and how to build strong friendships while writing toxic ones.
Sara O’Leary’s joyful new book with illustrator Qin Leng asks a deceivingly-simple question: What is the best way to make a friend?
Kyo Maclear answers Just One Question about her collaboration with illustrator Julie Morstad and what it means to be ‘a door person.’
After more than two decades as a celebrated novelist, Camilla Gibb’s debut poetry collection hits stores and libraries this month. In I Used to Be a Pisces, Gibb grapples what it means to feel at home in a time of upheaval.
Toronto-based picture book writer Zenia Wadhwani takes us inside her new book, A Fly in the Chai, reflecting on what makes her favourite spread especially special!
“A woman learns to swim. A girl falls in love with her teacher. A man hires a humanoid nanny. A woman is abducted by her trash collector. A dying mother recycles time.” The interconnected stories in Alison Gadsby’s debut collection, Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive evoke an unsettling world that mirrors our own.
Ottawa-based author and editor Margo Lapierre’s lyrical and unflinching new poetry collection, Ajar, chronicles experiences of mental illness and gendered violence through a startling perceptual framework which asks the reader to rethink their understandings of time and self.
Kerry Clare joins me again, this time to talk about her charming new novel, Definitely Thriving. If, like me, you are a fan of unlikely romance, church jumble sales, used bookstores, decaying attic rooms with beautiful light, and (of course) tinned fish, than this is the book for you!
Tamla T. Young (she/her) is a mom, educator and writer whose journey blends education, creativity, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge. Raised in North America as a child of the Caribbean diaspora, her stories draw from family, culture, and lived experience, enriched by her love of languages, travel, and the arts.
As a senior editor at Kids Can Press, Katie Scott has worked on countless books for young readers, including Beatrice and Barb and A Summer without Anna. She also has impeccable taste in everything from lipstick to podcasts to pastries.
With the launch of A Summer without Anna just over a week away, I’m so excited to share this conversation with my brilliant co-creator, illustrator Risa Hugo.
Brooklin Stormie is an artist and illustrator based in Peterborough, Ontario. She is a grad of OCADU’s illustration program, a Pisces, and a believer in dragons.
Lindsay Zier-Vogel is many things. She’s the author of books for adults and children, a grant writer, a poet, a dancer, a columnist, a swimmer, a mom, and the creator of the acclaimed The Love Lettering Project. Her new novel, The Fun Times Brigade, examines the enduring challenges of reconciling being an artist with being a mother. It also has the cutest cover I’ve ever seen.
Alison McGauley is the author of Kenzie’s Little Tree, a cozy and comforting story about a young girl’s determination to care for a fragile sapling while also grappling with her mother’s illness.
